Time Gap
by Dardanelle
Summary: Rufus is all set to pick up the pieces if needs be, but he still wants his friends to have what he and Jiya have if possible. He has seen Wyatt's face surprised by love for her and he has seen Lucy's too, radiant. In the middle of history, in the middle of some of the worst times ever.
1. Chapter 1

Thank you everyone who read and shared their thoughts on my first Timeless fic. The Timeless FF-community is such a friendly, generous and encouraging bunch of people making everyone feel welcome.

This takes place after the S1 finale.

* * *

"Man we need our historian back! That was a close call, almost too close," Rufus exclaims when he opens the hatch of the Lifeboat. "Rittenhouse mother or not, I'm not going back one more time without Lucy!"

"I'm not the one you need to convince," Wyatt replies unclasping his harness.

"Gentlemen." Agent Christopher is waiting for them on the platform.

"Crisis averted. But Emma lives to fuck up history another day. I'm not doing this again without Lucy," Wyatt says and pushes his Union army uniform cap at Christopher. "Wardrobe needs to replace this, it has a bullet hole in it. Lucy could have stopped it."

"Lucy?"

"Things got a little out of hand. She would have seen it coming with her skills."

"Lucy would have seen a bullet coming?"

Wyatt sighs. "Yeah, you know how a historian knows the background stuff so can see things coming. 'Cause funnily enough what you tell us in the briefings doesn't always mesh with the situation on the ground. You sent us out pretty much blind without her."

"Was there something wrong with the briefing?" One of Mason's people gets up from behind his desk.

"Pal, I don't know who you are, but if you had anything to do with the briefing, then yes." Wyatt turns his back on the young man to address the agent again. "As capable as Rufus and Lucy are, they're civilians and even modern history is high risk. I can't do this without Lucy."

"You need Lucy," Christoper says as she absentmindedly hands over the cap to Jiya who has walked over to them.

"Yeah, I need our third team member. Who would have stopped us almost getting shot if you hadn't grounded her because of her mother." _I need the bossy know-it-all who takes up half the space in the Lifeboat with her ridiculous hoop skirts. Who keeps it together and talks you down in the middle of the Alamo. Who hugs you as if she'll never let you go. Who makes you ask yourself if you could have stopped yourself from kissing her a second time if Bonnie and Clyde had not sat across the table._

Wyatt shakes his head to stop his thoughts from running on. "Help me out here, Jiya. What's going on? Where's Lucy? Has she been barred from the Mason building too?"

Jiya steps closer to put a hand on Wyatt's arm and her face tells him and Rufus a split second before she opens her mouth.

"Wyatt, who is Lucy?"

He feels like he's having a belated reaction to the time jump. He has to brace himself against a table to fight down a wave of nausea.

No.

No, it can't be.

* * *

It is happening.

He feels like he used to do in a not too distant past, when fell asleep with his mind muddled up after one drink too many. The past, present and future all tangled up into one and slipping from his grasp.

It has happened.

What the three of them know deep down but have never really acknowledged. Lulled into false security by the times it did work when they split up over time and they all rejoined. (Is he allowed to be pissed at Lucy for making him relax by turning up as promised after staying back in time with her grandfather?)

It's like an earthquake has made the earth shift. On the surface everything has slipped back to the way it was. Except a gap in time has opened up and swallowed one of them.

Wyatt takes a shuddering breath and straightens. He avoids looking at Rufus. If he sees anything of what he feels reflected in the pilot he won't be able to continue. One step at a time, just like he was trained. He'll hold on to his training, everything else seems to have disappeared. It's his responsibility. He protects them.

"Get the Lifeboat ready! We're leaving when it's charged."

"To go where?" Christoper calls after Wyatt's as he weaves his way between the tables.

"Anywhere but here!" he throws over his shoulder. "To some godforsaken place in the middle of a war or a giant epidemic if that's what it takes to get Lucy back. Rufus, get some shuteye!"

* * *

Squared away, everything tidy, folded or rolled up-Wyatt pulls out clothes and toiletries from his locker letting them land were they fall on the floor and reaches into a corner. His knees almost buckle from relief when his fingers close around her locket. It is still here.

In this timeline Lucy only exists in the minds and memories of Rufus and he. But there is a tangible object too. "Keep it safe for me," Lucy said when they jumped without her for the first time. The metal still warm from her skin as she gave dropped it into his palm. On this trip he let her down. Angry because Lucy was grounded from yet another time jump he lost his focus. He forgot to bring her locket.

Amy smiles at him from her portrait. His fingertip gently touches Lucy's face in the other tiny photo. The edges dig into his palm as he snaps the locket shut and closes his fist around it. No way he is handing it over to Mason just so he can be fascinated all over again as if it's only science that matters. As if the people behind it are just a means to its end.

He lies down on one of the uncomfortable benches. The ability he's picked up in the army, to sleep everywhere when there's time, eludes him. Wyatt sighs when he hears the door and hesitant steps. He doesn't have to lift his arm from across his eyes to tell it's Rufus.

"How are you doing?"

"How d'ya think?"

The bench opposite creaks.

 _Great. It's too late to pretend to be asleep._ "It's my job to keep her safe, Rufus. To protect her. I let her down."

"Hate to break it to you, but you're not the master of the universe. You can't control things like this. I know you've probably been trained to kill enemies a dozen ways with a teaspoon, but that won't help now." Rufus pauses before he continues. "I don't know what would."

The air between them is weighed down with what Rufus doesn't say. Amy disappeared and they have yet to come back to a timeline she is in.

Wyatt sighs and sits up. "So what, we're just supposed to stay put? You risked everything to go back in time to help me save Jess, who you haven't event met, but you won't lift a finger to help me get Lucy back!"

"Wyatt."

"What?" He realizes what he's said. A glance at Rufus confirms it's not lost on him either.

"Look, it'll be hours before the Lifeboat is ready. I'm going to get out of this reenactment costume and go home and get some rest."

Thankfully Rufus interprets his words as a hint to leave.

"Rufus, I'm sorry. Didn't mean to take it out on you."

"S'okay. I get it."

* * *

When Wyatt is alone again he wonders if Rufus realized before he did himself. How he feels about Lucy.

Wyatt is not sure why he even bothers to lie down. As if he could sleep. After half an hour of turning and staring at the ceiling he is more tense and restless than when he lay down. He rises to fill the coffee maker.

It turns out he doesn't have to argue his way to another time jump. Emma has jumped to July 20 1969. It's a weird feeling, almost being grateful to Emma.

"Even I know this one. You're on Rufus, your thing, space and planets."

"I'm an engineer."

"Close enough. Science stuff."

The young man from before comes up to them.

"Yeah, did you want something?" Wyatt asks.

Rufus suddenly looks uncomfortable. "Er, Wyatt, Jiya told me he's our historian."

"No, he's not. We already have a historian. Let's go find some polyester shirts."

* * *

Disaster averted they return. Russia won't put a man on the moon first after all. Wyatt's fingers are shaking when he unbuckles his harness. (Is this what it's like for her with the buckles every time they jump?) Wyatt can't get out of the Lifeboat fast enough and at the same time he wants time to slow down. Before Rufus opens the hatch there is every reason to believe Lucy will be on the other side of it.

Rufus must be reading his thoughts. "You ready?"

Wyatt scans the rows of desks for a pair of brown eyes and dark hair. It's as if the air leaves his lungs when he comes up empty. It becomes clear how much hope he'd pinned to this trip. How he was practically elated picking out the ugly ass shirts and bell-bottoms with Rufus.

"So, where are we going for a drink?" Rufus asks when the two of them are making their way to the exit.

Wyatt comes to a halt. Is Rufus joking? Has he invited Jiya too, the third person of their post time travel-drinks replaced just like that?

"You'd have to give me a ride though. I said Jiya could take my car home. We came into work together this morning. This morning present time, not this morning in Florida, obviously. We haven't moved in together. But sometimes I stay at hers. Jiya's going home. To her place I mean. Yeah, so the place on the corner?"

Wyatt is trying to break into Rufus' rambling with a "Thanks, but no thanks" when it clicks. Rufus is doing this for him. What he saw earlier, Rufus talking to Jiya, it was not him asking her to go for a post time jump-drink with them. It was Rufus telling Jiya to leave without him as he'd go for a drink with Wyatt.

He still wants to say "Thanks, but no thanks" but what is does he have to go home to? More confusing thoughts going round and round in his head? More tossing and turning and looking at the ceiling?

Rufus may have been rambling, but he's didn't pick the bar at random. They've been here before, the three of them. But not often enough for there to be a favorite booth or the staff asking "the usual?" and if Lucy will be joining them later.

"You go ahead and find a table, I'll get the drinks. Beer?" Wyatt says by way of thanks.

"Sorry it didn't work out this time," Rufus says when they are both seated. "I don't want to break out the clichés, but I know this must be difficult for you."

"For you too."

"Yes, but it's not the same thing is it?"

"No?"

"Lucy is my friend and I miss her. But she and I don't have what you two have."

Wyatt sighs. "I've been an idiot. I thought there would be time. We did talk, kind of."

"You figured she'd be around so you could continue the way you have. Talk some more later."

"Then Emma decided to step in to screw up history and Lucy found out about her mother and Rittenhouse."

"I can't imagine what it must be like to find out the parent who raised you, who you trusted and looked up to, is part of Rittenhouse. It must suck. Big time."

"Yeah, I guess that's one way of putting it"

"But you, you need to tell Lucy. How you feel."

"Why are we even talking about this, Rufus? Lucy is not here."

"You owe her that. And yourself."

This is where Lucy would have said something to make them all feel better. Or something really annoying. Either way it would have taken their minds off the current mess for a few moments.

"I'm not blind you know. I've had a front row seat to your budding romance?"

"Our what?" Wyatt almost chokes on his beer. "Where do you even pick up expressions like that? And what do you mean by 'our romance'?"

"Oh, come on. This time jumping thing hasn't been a picnic for anyone of us, but as irritated as we've all been with each other, who gets to you the most? Me or Lucy?"

"I... I mean, she's... you know."

"Yeah, I know. Why do you think that is? Why do you think you let her get to you in that way, let her under your skin, Mr keep-calm-under-pressure-special-ops-guy?"

"Because she's..."

 _Life lesson, if the woman you... Oh, let's be honest, let's be brave here, you've faced IEDs. If the woman you love is swallowed up in time, admit your feelings and do something about it._

Rufus saves him. "Because she's special. And if I, who waited months to ask the woman who for some reason saw something in me to dinner, can see it loud and clear, you'd be an idiot not to own up to it. Not to have the guts."

Before Wyatt has a chance to reply Rufus continues. "In the first few weeks it was the grown-up version of you pulling her pig tails. Then I just got used to it. How you'd both always walk into Mason's with that look of expectation, looking for someone. Once you'd laid eyes on each other things could move on. We could focus on saving history."

"Oh."

"Oh, indeed. I kind of envy you, it must have made you the only two people ever to look forward to Monday mornings."

For reasons he can't explain it kills Wyatt to know that Rufus has always been aware that Lucy and he laying eyes on each other after the weekend, their innocent chats in the break room, he buckling her seatbelt in the Lifeboat, grasping her hand or brushing his fingers across her cheek when history has imploded on them, is all they've ever allowed each other.

* * *

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

1\. Reminder that this takes place after S1.

2\. To be absolutely clear, I do not own anything related to Timeless - I'm sure you all assumed I did when I forgot to add a disclaimer in Chapter 1 ;)

3\. Hopefully I've caught any typos. I renamed Rufus Russel at one point, but I blame that on a cold and cold medicine.

* * *

Traffic is light this late at night. A blessing and a curse; his mind is too distracted for busy traffic but he reaches the silence of his place too soon.

Wyatt remains on the doormat when he's closed the frontdoor, suddenly unable to move.

The numbness of the shock has worn off and the pain hits him full force. The always present ache he's lived with for years is different from this acute sharp pain that takes his breath away. New and yet so familiar. Will this pain too dull with time?

* * *

He does everything right. He gets out of bed in the mornings. He doesn't ignore phone calls. He schools his face into an almost smile when he assures people at Mason's he's okay. (And they all seem to buy it.)

Because that's what you do. You let the dishes pile up in the sink and watch the TV shopping channels until you can recite the special offers by heart while the row of empty bottles grows. Or you scrub your apartment from top to bottom and go for a run and keep running until your body is so exhausted you nearly collapse. But either way your mind won't shut up.

Wyatt wonders where sadness ends and wallowing begins. When his life became something that would even be too unrealistic to fit in fiction. Grieving widower loses secret love. (So secret he hadn't even told her yet, how's that for irony?) It sounds like a Lifetime movie.

It turns out not everyone has bought his assurances that he's okay.

Wyatt looks behind Jiya, expecting to see Rufus at his frontdoor too.

"It's just me. Can I come in?"

He steps aside and holds the door open wider.

"Can I get you anything? Coffee, tea?" Wyatt asks when he takes Jiya's jacket in an attempt to stretch out the moment until he finds out exactly why she is here. He is not stupid, he can guess why, and he'd much rather get back to the TV and hear more about that supreme quality set of steak knives with the amazing bonus cutting board than have his heart turned inside out.

"How are you?" Jiya asks when they are waiting for the coffeemaker.

Wyatt turns away from her to reach for mugs on a shelf. "I'm okay."

"No you're not. I may not have known Lucy, but Rufus has told me about her, about your team. About you and her."

He freezes with the mugs half way between the cabinet and the counter before he sets them down with elaborate care to avoid slamming them down. Let it slide, it's easier that way, he tells himself a split second before he blurts out "Don't talk about her as if she's dead!"

He can hear Jiya draw breath behind him.

"God, I'm sorry Wyatt. I didn't mean it like that. I didn't..."

"She's disappeared. Or she's in another timeline. And we are stuck here, in the wrong one. We're not supposed to be here. There's no reason for us to be here without Lucy. I'm not supposed to be here."

"I know." Jiya's hand is almost as light as a feather between his shoulderblades.

"Maybe it was something we did or didn't do in the 1860s. Maybe if I had been shot Lucy would have been there when Rufus opened the hatch."

"No, Wyatt, no."

"Then what did I do wrong?"

"It might not have anything to do with you, what you did or didn't do."

"No?"

"No."

His next words are barely above a whisper. "Then what?"

"I'm not sure."

"You're supposed to be one of the smart ones."

"Time travel is new. We're still working on it. Figuring things out."

"Figuring things out!" Wyatt spits. "It would be great if you could step it up. You do realize it's not just about the physics, that actual human beings are affected?"

"I know."

Jiya can feel the muscles in his back shift under her palm as Wyatt relaxes his grip on the counter. With a sigh he turns around to look at her. It could be the light but Jiya is willing to bet it's not the kitchen lights that make his eyes glisten.

"At least you you're being honest. Why don't you go sit down in the living room and I'll bring the coffee out."

"Can I help?"

"No. Just give me a minute."

Wyatt doesn't ask Jiya about cream or sugar. The Jiya in the right timeline, the one with Lucy, takes her coffee black and unsweetened.

"I used to look forward to the days we didn't have to jump back in time," he tells her when he is seated opposite Jiya in the living room. "No travel sickness, no weird, scratchy old costumes, no team mates performing amateur surgery on you when things go south."

Jiya pulls a face. Wyatt chooses to believe it is because in this timeline Jiya takes sugar in her coffee. Proof that this is the "wrong" timeline.

"Now I actually look forward to when we have to get into that damn tin can eyeball and chase after Emma. Or, I mean I look forward to when we return and Rufus opens the hatch. Look forward to it and dread it. I can't wait for all this to be over. Then I'll refuse to go anywhere in time without her again."

Jiya smiles.

"What are you smiling at?"

"You're talking about when, not if. So tell me about your Lucy,"

"We're not... you know. She's not _my_ Lucy."

"Yeah, I know. But..."

"But what?"

"Before Rufus told me about the other timeline I just assumed she was your Lucy."

Suddenly Wyatt finds his coffee very interesting. Jiya waits patiently while he stares into his mug.

"Why?" he finally asks.

"Wyatt, you kept saying 'I need her' when you were asking for Lucy. Anyone can see you're not just missing a member of your team."

"Do you want to see what she looks like?"

"Sure, but how?"

Wyatt reaches into his pocket and holds out Lucy's locket to Jiya.

"That's Lucy, on left, the woman on her right and in the other photo is Lucy's sister, Amy. She's missing too."

"How?"

"When we got back from a time jump, our first one, Amy wasn't there. But Lucy still had her photo in the locket."

"Hm, that's..."

Wyatt reaches out and snatches back the locket from Jiya and his face hardens. "Mason used the word _incredible_. And now you tell me he and you and the rest of the brains behind the whole time travel thing can't really tell why Lucy has disappeared. You need to work this out. We need to work this out."

"I know."

"I'll go back to 1863 and take my chances with that Confederate soldier again, or hell I'll hitchhike with Emma to the Russian Revolution, if that's what it will take to get Lucy back. Or I'll continue to hold my breath and hope every time we land back in present time if that's the right thing to do."

Wyatt sighs. "Sorry, I didn't mean to take it all out on you."

"I am one of the brains, as you call us."

"Yeah, but unlike Mason you know what it's like to have someone you care about travel back in time and hope they'll return."

Wyatt gets up from his chair. "It's getting late, I'll walk you to your car."

"It's okay. I'm parked just outside."

"You'll save me from ordering a set of steak knives or a collection of porcelain dolls from the shopping channel."

* * *

"Did you pick up information about a future sugar shortage?" Rufus asks dropping into the chair opposite Wyatt in the breakroom at Mason Industries.

"Are you taking turns with Jiya checking up on me?"

"No."

"Yes you are"

"Okay, you got us. But tonight's our date night so Agent Christopher will come over and play Minecraft with you."

"If you're trying to make me feel better you might wanna try a joke that's actually funny. That wouldn't even work on a good day."

"So what's with all the sugar?" Rufus gestures at the sugar packets spread out on the table.

"That's you," Wyatt says and points to a Sweet'n Low.

"Riiight. Okay. That totally makes things clear."

"I've been thinking."

"Go on."

"I'm sure Jiya told you about our talk yesterday."

"She did, but go on because I'm not sure what a table full of sugar packets has got to do with it unless you're going to bake her a cake to apologize. Again. Pal, she gets that you're sorry. She's great that way. So moving on to your master plan slash weird new diet."

"One possibility is that we landed in the wrong timeline, one without Lucy, when we got back from the Civil War. For some reason we keep coming back to it after our time jumps. Or we did something, we screwed up, like we did with the Hindenburg. And because of whatever we did in 1863 Lucy is not here and we need to go back to 1863 and fix it. That's what the sugar packets are for, I'm trying to make sense of what happened on that time jump, I'm retracing our steps."

"No problem. You just work out where the sugar packets, the low calorie option and the organic stuff should be and we'll go back to 1863 and cross our fingers that the maniac shooting at us won't hit us this time either."

Wyatt gives Rufus a "duh"-look.

"Sorry, I forgot that's the kind of thing you used to do in the army for fun before breakfast, before you moved on to the real dangerous stuff. Us IT and engineer people are a bit more cautious."

"You don't say."

"I'm not the one that pushed my team mate out of the way and ended up with a bullet hole less than an inch from my brain."

"That's what I'm here for, to protect you. But there's a third possibility."

Wyatt scoops up the sugar packets and leans back in his chair to look at Rufus.

"Which is?"

"That Lucy is here. But because of what happened in 1863 she didn't end up with Mason Industries. With m.. us."

Rufus feels as if he's walking on egg shells. "Okay, what should we do?"

"I've checked online directories."

"Yeah?"

"Nothing. I should probably check universities, the history departments. Even if she's not with us, that's probably where she'd be if she's here. Right? I just haven't had the time."

"No?"

No, that's not true. I haven't... I haven't..."

"No need. That's what we IT and engineer people are for. If Lucy's here, Jiya and I will find her."

"You will? Then what?"

"What is it you say? We make it up as we go." Rufus stands up and gathers his jacket and bag.

"Ow, what are you doing?"

"I'm hugging you. Showing support and all that. It's what you and Lucy do."

"Don't. Just don't. You're not Lucy. Not the same thing."

"Okay."

"Rufus."

"Yeah?" Rufus stops at the breakroom door.

"Thanks."

"No problem. Anytime."

"And Rufus, Agent Christopher better not turn up on my doorstep tonight."

"Don't worry, she's probably even more clueless than you when it comes to Minecraft. Connor Mason is picking you up at seven, you're going bowling."

"Still not funny."

* * *

"Did you ask him?"

"Yes, he said no."

Jiya roles her eyes at Rufus. "Okay, I'll try," she says and pulls back her chair.

Rufus looks up when Jiya returns to her desk. "So?"

"He said yes."

"How did you make him do that?"

"I twisted his arm and threatened to hurt him."

"You what now?"

Jiya roles her eyes at Rufus again. "I promised him the one thing he can't say no to."

"Yeah, what's that?"

"What do you think?"

"Ah. You are clever."

"I also said you'd make your famous homemade lasagna. Your specialty."

"But I don't make a special lasagna?"

"You do now," Jiya smiles.

* * *

Wyatt hands over a bottle of red and a bottle of white wine. "I didn't know which would go best with your lasagna."

"Thank you. You shouldn't have and all that, but the red will go great with it." Rufus reaches for a corkscrew.

"Didn't know if it was vegetarian, seeing as I've never heard of your famous lasagna before. Funny that," Wyatt says, and holds Rufus gaze.

"Yeah, about that. Kind of a funny story actually."

"Hi Wyatt, glad you could make it," Jiya says stepping into the kitchen. "It's not every day Rufus makes his..."

"You can stop, we've been busted," Rufus interrupts her. "So how long did it take you?"

"Honestly, five minutes after you've invited me over to play video games Jiya invites me to dinner because you're making your specialty that I've never heard of."

"Could have been a coincidence."

"Sure it could. I know you like chocolate crocodiles and we've shared a bed, but somehow I've never heard of your lasagna."

"It's chocodiles and there was only one room left at the inn in the middle of a snowstorm almost 300 years ago. Lucy will back me up on that."

The kitchen goes quiet.

"Sorry, dude. I... forgot. I mean it just came out. I wasn't thinking."

"That's funny too, because I think about it all the time." Wyatt pauses. "Look, I appreciate all you're doing, but I'm not very good company tonight so I should probably just go."

"No, here," Jiya cuts in as she grabs one of the beers and hands it to Wyatt. Why don't we leave Rufus to continue his googling and calling his mother or we'll never eat. I promised I'd show you what we've dug up so far."

"How is he?" Rufus asks when Jiya returns to help set the table. "Is he stilled pissed?"

"Wyatt's not angry, he's sad."

"He is?"

"Psychology 101."

"Right."

"I explained how we've widened the search and are looking for people with her name and degrees in history and anthropology. He understands that not finding things is progress too, that ruling things out narrows the field."

"But?"

"But he figured it out pretty quickly, that she may have another surname if she's here."

"Okay. But he's staying for dinner?"

"Yes. I guilted him into it. At your expense, sorry. I said that as you've actually never made lasagna before it could turn out to be the worst one ever so he'd better help eat it."

"And he's too much of a gentleman to say no. You're very clever. And devious."

"I know, that's why you love me."

* * *

This evening Wyatt doesn't freeze on his doormat.

He goes through the motions. He's good at that that. He's had a lot of practice.

His phone is charging, the leftover lasagna is in the fridge and he's in bed before he realizes.

That his heart has healed enough for it to break all over again.

The irony of it. _Hey Lucy, guess what, those possibilities we talked about before your life imploded and Emma stole the time machine, I'm ready. All it took was for you to be lost in time._

* * *

 **TBC**

The next chapter will be the last one of this fic. Rufus will make pumpkin filled ravioli. No, only joking :) I think it is time Lucy joined the story...


	3. Chapter 3

Takes places after S1 finale.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Timeless.

Last chapter of this fic! Thank you everyone's who has read and commented.

I should also say thank you for your patience if you read the first two chapters when I posted them and have come back to read this one. Who knew 80 hour working weeks and stubborn viral infections can't be combined with ff-writing ;) But I'm more stubborn so here's chapter three!

* * *

Lucy may believe in fate but she doesn't believe in love at first sight. To her love has more to do with a moment in time than with sight.

Even if she had been less nervous and less confused that first time at Mason Industries, love would not have been on her mind when he smirked at her and called her ma'am.

She glances at Jiya. Before Lucy was grounded because her mother is Rittenhouse she never really gave it much thought, how much more difficult it is to be left behind in the present and wait for the Lifeboat to return.

But as much as time stretches out, almost seems to slow down when Wyatt and Rufus are gone, she can almost swear it stops between the whooshing sound the hatch makes when Rufus opens it and when they appear. All the disasters and close calls she has imagined when they've been gone are repeated at lightening speed between the whoosh and they stumbling out.

She glances over at Jiya again who is busy typing away at her keyboard and pausing now and then to talk to the scientists or technicians or whatever they are around her. Not for the first time Lucy wishes she had a job to do when the rest of her team is somewhere in history. Doing more research on the time they are at only makes the waiting worse. It's too late anyway. She is supposed to be there. She is not supposed to be here decades or centuries apart from them. From him.

Lucy will never admit to it, but when Wyatt is in a different time she sometimes stops by his locker, as if part of him were contained behind the cool smooth surface beneath her fingertips.

Jiya almost catches her once. Maybe she did catch her but is too kind to say anything? Another thing that makes it worse. Because all she and Wyatt have ever had after all those moments between them in the past and present are the possibilities they have never acted on. Jiya's gentle squeeze on her shoulder, so brief Lucy almost thinks she has imagined it, makes her feel as transparent and as brittle as glass.

* * *

Lucy has this trick to stop herself from pushing Agent Christoper and anyone else out of the way to launch herself at Wyatt and give him a bone crushing hug when the Lifeboat returns. When they are gone she removes all the paperweights from the stacks on her desk. This way she is forced to put her hands, elbows and arms on all the loose pieces of paper to prevent a snowstorm of documents. Then she always makes a mess anyway, blindly scrabbling for weights because her eyes are busy searching for his when he steps onto the platform.

Once she stops mid-scrabble. Her first instinct is rush up there and not let go. She tamps it down. Maybe she is getting better at this waiting thing than she ever wanted to be Lucy thinks while everyone else seems to be rushing to the platform.

She fights her instinct for 72 minutes. By then everything is calm and quiet again. Her steps echo when she marches down the corridor and pulls open the door to the locker room so hard it hits the wall.

"Hey, Rufus, where's the fire?" Wyatt asks as he pulls his, that is to say her, locket over his head and turns around. "Did you forge...Whoa! You do know this is the men's locker room, don't you?"

Lucy punches one of his shoulders.

"Ow, that's one of the few places I don't hurt!"

"I can see that!"

Wyatt reaches to where he has fastened a towel around his hips as if to make sure it's properly secured. "So why are you hitting me there?"

"Because you're an idiot!"

" _I'm_ an idiot?! Did you hit Rufus too?"

"No, of course not!"

"Of course not?"

"He didn't seem injured."

"Sorry, not following. I brought us both back in one piece, kind of. No one was shot. You know what it's like. The past is no picnic."

"I know!"

"Then why are you so angry with me? What did I do?"

"Rufus is not a reckless hothead! He's careful. But you, you..." Lucy can hear her voice wobble so she stops to take a breath and looks up at the ceiling to stop any tears from falling. When she has collected herself she continues.

"And why did you take off my locket? You're supposed to keep it safe!"

"It's not exactly waterproof. I didn't want the photos to turn into pulp when I showered."

"Oh, okay."

"Anything else I've done to piss you off?"

Lucy doesn't answer. Instead she reaches out to almost touch one of the bruises that is forming on the skin over his ribcage, as if she could smooth it away with her hand. She moves to stand so close she can feel his breath against her temple when he exhales. _"Is that me, do I make him hold his breath without even touching him?"_ she wonders, surprised. Her fingertips ghost a cut on his forehead before they trace the swelling along his jaw.

Wyatt waits quietly, patiently as she circles around him her hands softly mapping the marks on his back. When she has gone full circle she puts her head on his shoulder. Although she is gentle she can still feel him tense when she clasps her arms around him.

"Careful. Injured time traveler here."

"You should have thought of that before you got into a fight in another century."

"Noted."

"And _you_ need to be careful. Especially now that I'm not there," she whispers against his skin not sure if the moisture on her face are drops of water from his shower or her tears.

Maybe she is crying because his hand comes up to stroke her hair and she can feel his lips against the shell of her ear as he makes soothing noises.

Time slows down or speeds up and moves a hundred miles a minute. There is no clock on the wall to tell how long they remain like this.

"Can I get dressed now?"

"Yes."

"Lucy, you need to let go of me for me to get dressed."

"Right. I'm sorry, I wasn't..." She steps back.

Wyatt raises his eyebrows at her.

"Oh, I... I'll just wait for you outside."

* * *

She isn't quite ready to let him go yet. Wyatt must guess because he suggests they go for a drink when they reach the parking lot. Maybe Lucy slipping her hand into his when they walked down the corridor gave him a clue.

"I'm the one who stops the bullets," she says when they are seated at a table with drinks in front of them.

Wyatt glass pauses mid-air. "You do? You stop the bullets?"

"I'm the one who sees them coming."

"You do? No offense, I know you historians have all those dusty old papers to consult, but bullets flying around is kind of my thing."

"I know the background. What has happened and will happen. That's my thing. To stop the bullets before they start flying."

* * *

Maybe this is the time they don't come back? They never really talk about it. The chances and risks. Just because it's worked out so far it doesn't mean that... No, she is _not_ going there!

Lucy stands to gather the coffee cups on her desk. The half eaten sandwich from this morning. Or last night. Even though she draws it out she is back at her desk less than ten minutes later. Another ten minutes and the paperclips are organized.

Even Jiya seems restless. She looks a lot more at her screen than she types and aren't there more people around than there usually are?

Lucy glances at Christopher. She looks as inscrutable as always. Mason seems concerned. But maybe that is just the same old being responsible for building a time machine that was stolen by people who want to ruin history?

Somehow the afternoon passes. Early evening she walks over to Jiya. The papers on the desk flutter and Lucy stills.

False alarm. Just someone rushing past. Lucy sighs and releases her white-knuckle hold on the table top.

"Why don't you go home? I'll call you if they come back," Jiya offers.

"No, that's okay. I'll wait. More coffee?"

They agree on tea.

* * *

She is not prepared. They are in the hours that are neither night nor morning. The noise wakes her up and makes her raise her head from the desk and peel an errant post-it note from her cheek.

All the paper weights in place and not awake long enough for her daytime discipline to have kicked in Lucy reaches the Lifeboat at the same time as the hatch opens. (No, she doesn't push Agent Christopher out of the way, she just moves past her really fast.)

Lucy's sharp intake of breath coincides with Wyatt's breath leaving his lungs when she launches herself at him. She becomes aware of how ice cold water is seeping through her front before she realizes Wyatt is frozen in place. She grasps his shoulders and leans back to look into his face.

"Wyatt, what happened? Did you fall into the water? Through the ice? Are you hurt"

He doesn't answer, instead he looks at her with something she can only describe as wonderment.

"Lucy?"

"Yes?"

"You're here?"

"Where else would I be?"

"You're really here."

Wyatt's hand is shaking when he touches her face. It's almost as if he is checking that she is real.

She covers his hand on her cheek with her own.

"You're freezing cold."

The next moment he is holding her so close a shadow wouldn't fit between them.

Lucy remembers the rest of the room. Wyatt seems oblivious or he doesn't care. He doesn't let go until Lucy shivers.

"Sorry, November rain. Rufus couldn't exactly put down the Lifeboat in the fields. We had to walk for... nevermind, it doesn't matter." Wyatt shakes his head as if to clear his mind. "I can see where we are, but when?"

"It's late, or early. You've been gone for almost two days."

"You've been gone for over two months."

"What?"

Maybe someone has knocked him over the head. It wouldn't be the first time. "Look, you probably should see the doctor before the debriefing."

Agent Christopher who has been unusually patient breaks in. "I agree. Let's get moving people."

Wyatt ignores her. "What are we?" he asks Lucy.

"What? You are drenched, muddy and you stink. But why do you smell of candle wax?" It's Lucy's turn to freeze. "A common method to avoid trench lice a century ago." She starts to take a step back but Wyatt stops her.

"It may be too late now."

"Thanks a lot! You could have warned me."

"Sorry?"

"Apology not accepted. Especially not when you smirk like that."

"Master Sergeant," Christopher tries again.

"Not now!" When Wyatt looks at Lucy again his smile is gone. Something is definitely going on.

"What are we?" he repeats.

He should be checked for head injuries. "We're a team. You and Rufus and I. But because my mother has turned out to be Rittenhouse I'm..."

"Yeah, I know all that," he says impatiently. "That's it? That's all we are?"

"What is going on, Wyatt?

"Nothing apparently. Just hoping there for a minute."

He turns to Christopher. "Guess I'm ready for the debriefing and possibly a delousing."

* * *

"So that looked pretty intense, you and Wyatt. What's happening?" Jiya wants to know when Lucy has changed (no lice, thank god) and drops into a chair next her.

"I don't know. He seemed almost shocked to see me, as if he couldn't believe I was here. He said something about me being gone for over two months and then he kept asking _what_ we are."

"And then?"

"He's a guy so obviously he talked my ear off wanting to explain and clarify everything and share his every thought and feeling."

"I hate it when they do that. I wish they'd expect us to keep guessing more."

"I know," Lucy sighs. "It's as if I've missed something. Something has happened."

Rufus joins them. "So what's happening?"

"Apart from you and Jiya beginning to sound like each other?"

"Wyatt's being weird. Lucy's doesn't know why."

"I think I should talk to Lucy. Christopher is sending everyone home. Meet you at your place in a while?"

Jiya looks at Rufus. Some kind of silent exchange goes on between them, Lucy notes.

"Sure. See you tomorrow Lucy, or later today or something."

"My money would have been on a big happy reunion," Rufus says when they are alone.

"You were gone for a long time and it's feels even longer when I'm stuck here, but it's not as if.." Lucy stops when Rufus shakes his head. "That's not what you meant."

"No."

"Wyatt said _I've_ been gone."

"You have."

"Where? It's going to sound like there's an echo in here, but what's happening?"

"You were gone for over two months."

"I was banned from Mason Industries? But how? I've been here all the time. Stuck behind a desk."

"No. Not to us. Not to Wyatt. Lucy, you disappeared as if you'd been lost in a gap in time. Wyatt and I got back from 1863 and you weren't there."

"I was... gone? Like Amy?"

"Yeah."

"How did Wyatt, I mean how did you both, how did that work out?"

"It didn't. Look, missing you was the worst thing that has happened to me in this whole time travel thing, and some bad shit has happened. I can only imagine what it's been like for Wyatt. I lost a team mate, a friend, he lost a lot more."

"He actually said so?"

"You know Wyatt, you have to fit the pieces together and push him a bit, but yes."

"What a mess."

"Yes, but two good things happened."

"What good things?"

"I learned how to make lasagna. But more importantly, Wyatt finally admitted how he feels about you. So for everyone's sake go and put him out of his misery. Tell him how you feel. And if it's not the same, let him down gently."

"What did he say?"

"No, no way, this is not high school! I'm not gonna tell you what he said about you and I'm not taking him any messages from you. You two are just going to have to deal with this and figure it out on your own. And if you don't, you're going to have to put _me_ out of my misery because I don't know how much more of this I can take."

"More? You?"

"Lucy, Wyatt was prepared to steal the Lifeboat a second time! He was all set to go back to 1863 and face some really scary people again who shot at us the first time around. He wanted to return to 1754 or go to any of the other top ten worst places in history to change it to get you back."

"He was!" Lucy tries again when she hears how happy she sounds and Rufus looks the opposite of happy. "I mean, he wanted to do that?"

"Revolutions, epidemics, you name it. But as bad as that would have been, the worst was the present. He grieved for you, Lucy. I was right there and there was nothing I could do."

"I'm sure you did everything you could. Thank you Rufus, you're a good friend."

"I even tried hugging him at one point. Now it's your turn. Be gentle with him, promise."

"I promise."

"Just one more thing."

"What's that?"

"This." Rufus hugs her. "I missed you."

Rufus eyes follow Lucy as she walks down the corridor.

He is all set to pick up the pieces if needs be, but he still wants his friends to have what he and Jiya have if possible. He has seen Wyatt's face surprised by love for her and he has seen Lucy's too, radiant. In the middle of history, in the middle of some of the worst times ever.

* * *

"We need to get you your own locker in here soon."

Lucy walks up to Wyatt and stands as close to him as she did the last time she was in here.

"Are you going to hit me?"

Just like the last time she lets her hand trace his face. The old injuries have healed. "You don't have to make any jokes. It's okay." She stands on her toes and places a soft, barely there kiss on a new cut.

"I talked to Rufus. He told me what happened. About me not being here. About you when I wasn't here."

"He did, did he. All of it?"

"Enough for me to know why you asked what we are."

"And?"

It's her turn. He was the one who brought up possibilities. He was the one who admitted he hoped.

"And I think we are more than we have allowed ourselves. From now on we should allow ourselves to be what we are."

She runs a hand through his hair before she lets it rest against his cheek. "I miss you and Rufus when you are in the past, but I never miss Rufus the way I miss you. I miss you when we are both in the present but in different places. I hold my breath every time the Lifeboat lands until I have seen you. I've had to stop myself from hugging you because I'm afraid I'd never let you go."

She feels him relax against her.

"I still think of how you kissed me in 1934," she says when her lips are a split second from his and then she returns his kiss over eight decades later.

The next morning he drops her locket into her hand.

"You're not keeping this for me anymore?"

"No need. I made another promise while you were gone. That when you were back I wouldn't go anywhere in time without you."

FIN

Thank you for reading. I've really enjoyed getting back into ff-reading and writing through Timeless. Your comments and support made all the difference!


End file.
